Retail traders plough $67bn into US stocks

Today’s agenda: Greenland hits back at Trump; Europe’s new hard-power leaders; Reeves’ Spring Statement; and exploring London’s original time machine

Good morning. We start today with an exclusive story from Wall Street where retail traders remain upbeat on US stocks even as professional money managers are slashing their exposure to the market on fears over Donald Trump’s policies.

How much has been invested? Net inflows from retail investors into US equities and exchange traded funds have registered $67bn in 2025, down only slightly from the $71bn spent in the final quarter of 2024, according to data provider VandaTrack. Goldman Sachs data also shows retail investors have been net sellers of US stocks in just seven sessions this year, despite the S&P 500 having fallen on 25 days. In contrast, big investors tracked by Bank of America made the “biggest ever” cut to their US equity allocations in March.

What’s behind the influx? Have-a-go investors seem to have continued their “buy the dip” tactic, which “has been an essentially foolproof strategy for four of the past five years”, said Steve Sosnick, chief market strategist at Interactive Brokers. Despite intense turbulence this year, “investors still appear more concerned about missing a dip-buying opportunity” than they are about further market declines, said Jim Paulsen, an independent market strategist. Read the full story.

Here’s what else we’re keeping tabs on today:

• Economic data: Spain’s February producer inflation figures, Germany’s Ifo business climate index and the US consumer confidence index for March are released.

• Germany: The 21st Bundestag meets for its inaugural session after the February 23 elections.

• UK: Financial Conduct Authority chair Ashley Alder and chief executive Nikhil Rathi appear before parliament.

• Companies: HSBC hosts its Global Investment Summit in Hong Kong, while Shell publishes its annual report. See our Week Ahead newsletter for the full list of companies reporting today.

Due to a technical issue, some readers of FirstFT may not have received the newsletter yesterday. We apologise for the inconvenience.

Five more top stories

1. Top US officials accidentally shared classified details about last week’s military strikes on Yemen with a journalist in an unofficial messaging group, in a stunning breach of security that triggered uproar in Washington. Vice-president JD Vance and defence secretary Pete Hegseth were among the members of a Signal chat group that discussed operational details of the attack.

• ‘Heads must roll’: Law enforcement agencies are silent on what legal experts say could be a violation of the US espionage act.

• More tariffs: Trump said the US would impose a 25 per cent tariff on all imports from any country that buys oil from Venezuela.

2. France and the UK are now the leaders of hard power in Europe, according to the Czech prime minister, despite Britain’s exit from the EU. “This is the time when stronger states must play the bigger role, those with concrete power, which is France and Great Britain, the European nuclear powers,” Petr Fiala told the Financial Times.

3. Greenland’s government has publicly dressed down US President Donald Trump, saying it had not invited any American officials to the Arctic island amid widespread anger over Washington’s attempts to woo Nuuk. Richard Milne has more on the statement about the planned “private visit” this week.

4. Exclusive: China is considering including services in a multibillion-dollar subsidy programme to stimulate consumption, according to officials and academics. The potential support for travel, tourism and sports would come in addition to an existing “trade-in” programme for goods such as mobile phones or cars. Here’s more on Beijing’s efforts to boost weak domestic demand.

• Big Read on China: A painful shift away from low-cost, labour-intensive production could have repercussions for Chinese stability and growth.

• Chinese AI start-ups: The country’s top groups are re-evaluating their strategies as they race to remain competitive following DeepSeek’s success.

5. Israel’s military has drawn up plans to reoccupy Gaza in a bid to finally defeat Hamas. The new military leadership, with the unofficial backing of Israeli far-right ministers, has formulated an extreme proposal to fight the militant group, said several people briefed on the plans.

News in-depth

Why was Heathrow airport slow to resume operations after a substation fire? As concerns grow over the resilience of the UK’s critical infrastructure, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer yesterday said “there are questions” for airport executives to answer over the scale of disruption at Europe’s largest aviation hub.

We’re also reading and listening to . . . 

Chart of the day

The UK chancellor’s speech to MPs tomorrow has a lot of bad news, including a gloomy forecast from the Office for Budget Responsibility that is expected to roughly halve Britain’s growth forecast in 2025. Analysts warn the Spring Statement could be the harbinger of an even more difficult full Budget in the autumn.

Take a break from the news . . . 

As the clocks go forward this weekend, the FT’s Ian Bott walks a fine (meridian) line through the birthplace of GMT — the Royal Observatory Greenwich, London’s original time machine.